


no, you'll never see me cry (there's just no time to die)

by arrowsanonymous



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: (and suffering), Bad Things Happen Bingo, How Do I Tag, I DONT KNOW HELP, Other, Pain, Whump, dumbass characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24821998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrowsanonymous/pseuds/arrowsanonymous
Summary: doesn't realize they've been injured from the Bad Things Happen Bingo! ft. Leo and the aftermath of TOA
Relationships: Piper McLean & Leo Valdez
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	no, you'll never see me cry (there's just no time to die)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_kiwi_is_not_a_pewee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_kiwi_is_not_a_pewee/gifts).



“Leo, hurry up!” Piper yells, her voice strained and slightly hoarse. “Please!”   
  
In the middle of their journey, back to the Waystation for Leo and… Piper’s new house for her, a bunch of monsters popped out of nowhere _ ,  _ and one of the attackers had managed to hit Festus just in the right way to get him to malfunction. And after all those hours Leo’s spent reinforcing his metal plating, too… “I’m trying, I’m trying!” he yells back, using all of his body weight to un-bent a bent piece of Celestial bronze. He really needs to invest in one of his father’s Celestial bronze-strengthening oils.

Piper seems to be taking that as a respectable response, because she’s gone back to charmspeaking the monsters while Coach Hedge throws various things at the monsters and clubbing them over the head with his bat. Projectiles fly past Leo, one of the sharper ones even grazing his cheek.  _ Where the hell are these coming from?  _ he thinks idly as he connects gears and rewires mechanisms hurriedly, using his own hands as soldering pens. 

Leo turns inside Festus’ body, from having his back to the fight to facing it. He’s almost done. The projectiles are hindering his work, because he keeps on having to throw out rocks as big as his fist from Festus’ body cavity, but he’s relatively unharmed. 

Coach Hedge throws something that looks vaguely like a flash bomb, because it produces a flash of white brilliance. “Kid, if you don’t finish up soon, we’re all going to be lunch for these ugly bastards!” he hollers. 

“I’m done! Give me a ‘sec to wake him up!” Leo shouts, connecting the last pieces of wiring. He hurriedly gets out of the metal cage-like structure and activates Festus. Now that he’s outside the shelter his dragon friend provides, Leo can appreciate the chaos and the danger of random blades flying through the air. When he hears the whir of the mechanism turning on, Leo immediately hops on Festus. “Mind blow-torching those monsters?” 

Festus raises his head and jumps into the air, then flies over the battle. Piper spots them and warns everyone to run out of his fire-breathing proximity. The monsters, confused at their enemies suddenly retreating, doesn’t notice the flying dragon, giving Festus the chance to burn the confused monsters into ashes.

“Thanks, buddy,” Leo says, patting Festus’ neck fondly. “We should go back to the ground and regroup.”

He complies, landing safely on the highway near his friend. Leo adjusts his position so that he’s sitting on Festus’ back, but also facing Piper. She watches the golden ashes blow away in the wind, holding her dusty dagger loosely on her side. “Do you think this is an organized attack, or just typical “let’s-eat-demigods” stuff?” she muses.

“Let’s hope it’s just our rotten luck,” Leo grins. “Besides… I’m pretty sure Apollo’s the organized-attack trouble magnet now. Nice change.”

“Yeah,” Piper agrees, still staring off into the distance. Coach Hedge had gotten back into the car, fussing over his baby and Mellie. She pulled out a cube of ambrosia from her jeans pocket and offered it to Leo absent-mindedly. He takes it, but doesn’t eat it. “...Yeah. You’re right. We need to get going,” she says, turning back to the car.

_ Apparently Piper’s got a lot on her mind today,  _ Leo thinks as he debates whether or not to ask Festus to fly. He decides on doing it anyway, catching up with Piper’s car up in the clouds, though the semi-busted metal plating where the monsters had hit Festus worries Leo more than it probably should. The dragon himself doesn’t seem to mind, though…

Leo slumps against Festus’ neck, feeling light-headed all of a sudden. Maybe they’ve flown too high? But there’s almost no condensation on his neck, so it can’t be lack of oxygen. 

_ Are you okay?  _ Festus asks, creaking and whirring. Leo can barely understand him; it’s like a bunch of gaps has been forcibly wrenched into Festus’ speech.  _ Pal… injured… ask Piper… help? _

“M’kay,” Leo mumbled, letting his left hand fall to his side. It grazes his clothes, and that’s when he realizes that he’s been bleeding all this time.  _ Oh,  _ he thinks, faintly registering the blood staining his clothing and some of Festus’ bronze plating.  _ I’m bleeding. _

His dragon friend plunges down, back to the ground, and Leo only remembers Piper’s hazy figure bursting out of the car and running towards him before he faints.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> first time writing "whump", please be nice ;-;


End file.
